The Limestone County Republican Party had him fill out a questionnaire which asked if he believed in "traditional marriage." He says local Republican officials met for two hours to debate his application, then called him to tell him he could not run as a Republican.

White said it's "obvious" why he is being barred from running as a Republican:

"It's very un-American to me to not allow citizens to decide who they want to serve. I would think that any citizen who qualifies to run for an office should be allowed to be on the ballot," White also told WAFF.

"I've always been a Republican and it seems crystal clear to me why they don't want me to run. My sexual orientation. It was even on the questionnaire they had be fill out prior to the steering committee," White says, referring to the question about marriage.

Limestone County GOP official Noah Wahl indicated the reason White was not given the okay to run is that they were unable to verify that he was a Republican, but explanation doesn't seem to hold up:

There is no "test" that verifies if one is a Democrat or a Republican, and White ran as a Republican for the same office in 2002. At the time he was married to a woman. He says all he had to do was fill out a form and pay a fee.

White is now married to Brett Jones, the first openly gay Navy SEAL. The couple have a teenage son.